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Published: 15 June 2009
Siamese opulence quite literally floods the Royal Albert Hall for this new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King And I.Performed in the round, the stage even has a moat… Read More
Jonathan Pryce, Lindsay Duncan and Sue Johnston are among those honoured in the Queen’s birthday honours list this year. Duncan and Pryce, who have both been on the West End… Read More
Published: 12 June 2009
The Theatre Royal Haymarket Company is giving budding young actors the chance to train and perform on a West End stage this summer. Teens aged 15-18 can join a week’s… Read More
A new production of South African musical The Mysteries – Yiimimangaliso will come to London’s Garrick theatre for a short run from 11 September to 3 October (press night 15… Read More
The curtain opens at the Lyttelton theatre to reveal a widescreen set of cinematic intensity, sandstone rocks cutting a ragged, stark outline against the azure sky.This is designer Bob Crowley’s… Read More
Published: 11 June 2009
With alfresco theatres and leafy backdrops one of the highlights of the summer theatre season, this year there is a new rival for London’s most magical venue in the form… Read More
With the anniversaries of the publication of two of George Orwell’s famous novels coinciding, Daily Telegraph deputy theatre critic Dominic Cavendish has compiled an evening of excerpts from Orwell’s work,… Read More
Published: 10 June 2009
Following on from last year’s children’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Open Air theatre, Regent’s Park, gives Shakespeare’s The Tempest a similar treatment, drawing out every iota of… Read More
The second of the Bridge Project’s offerings at the Old Vic, following The Winter’s Tale, is more consistent than the first. In The Cherry Orchard there is no swapping between… Read More
It was inevitable, like the ever onward movement of time, that when Ed Stoppard decided to appear in his father Tom’s most famous play, he would become the focus of… Read More
As the England football team sails through another world cup qualifier, it seems an appropriate time to steal a cliché from that sport. Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale really is a… Read More
Published: 9 June 2009
Lindsay Posner’s revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein fantasy musical Carousel is to end its run at the Savoy theatre on 20 June, a month earlier than planned. The production, which… Read More
Following the Royal Court’s summer season celebrating the work of American playwright Wallace Shawn, the Sloane Square venue turns its attention to new British work for this autumn.Joining the previously… Read More
Tackling the subject of a human tragedy that was at the forefront of both the political world and the media just nine years ago is not an easy thing to… Read More
Is there more joyful a place than the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s Globe’s new production of As You Like It? It is hard to think of one.This Arden is… Read More
Published: 8 June 2009
The Woman In Black, the West End’s longest running supernatural chiller, celebrated 20 years of scaring audiences witless at the weekend with an anniversary performance on 6 June.The haunting ghost… Read More
Jane Horrocks is to return to the Young Vic later this year to star in the revival of Irving Berlin’s musical Annie Get Your Gun, the show’s first London production… Read More
Billy Elliot The Musical picked up a record 10 Tony Awards at a ceremony at Radio City Music Hall, New York, last night. The British musical, which had been nominated… Read More
Published: 5 June 2009
Kevin Spacey and Trevor Nunn are to reunite at the Old Vic for a production of 1955 American play Inherit The Wind. Nunn will direct Spacey in the drama in… Read More
There really is a little bit of everything in Arcadia; comedy, drama, intellectual debate, heartbreaking emotions, fantasy, reality and mystery. So much, in fact, that it might appear a random… Read More
Published: 4 June 2009
Jude Law, alone, haunted, crouched in the darkness, surrounded by the towering bleakness of Elsinor. It is a wordless opening scene that masterfully sets the tone for the Hollywood star’s… Read More
Published: 3 June 2009
Kevin R McNally, character actor, well-known pirate and former television scriptwriter, tells Caroline Bishop about his new found classical career for the Donmar Warehouse.Kevin R McNally, it transpires, is a… Read More
Elaine Paige and a host of Theatreland stars were on hand at tkts Leicester Square this lunchtime to help promote the changes to the West End’s only official theatre ticket… Read More
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, the Tennessee Williams play that enjoyed a sell out run on Broadway, has confirmed that it will open at the Novello theatre this December,… Read More
Sean Holmes’s first season as Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith is to include revivals of Comedians and Three Sisters alongside premieres of new work by Simon Stephens, Jeremy Dyson… Read More
Whoopi Goldberg was at the London Palladium last night for the opening night of Sister Act, the new musical based on the hit 1992 film in which she starred.Goldberg is… Read More
Published: 2 June 2009
A quintet of the West End’s leading musical theatre actresses are to take to the stage at the Prince of Wales theatre’s Delfont Room this summer as part of its… Read More
Notting Hill venue the Gate theatre has been awarded £254,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Breakthrough Fund, recognising the work of its Artistic Directors Natalie Abrahami and Carrie Cracknell.The fund,… Read More
Shakespeare’s most feminist play, Much Ado About Nothing, filled with gossip, rumours and, of course, a healthy dose of mistaken identity, plays in the alfresco setting of the Open Air… Read More
Published: 1 June 2009
For years one of the stage’s brightest and most glamorous stars, Danny La Rue has died. The cross-dressing comedian, who had been suffering from cancer, passed away peacefully in his… Read More
Laurence Olivier Award-winning actor Matthew Kelly has been cast in Shakespeare’s Globe’s upcoming production of Troilus And Cressida.Kelly is joined in the Matthew Dunster-directed production by Laura Pyper and Paul… Read More
As we learned today of the death of the last survivor of the Titanic disaster, it seems appropriate that the Landor theatre is currently staging a show which harks back… Read More
It can’t be easy to direct a production by email, yet that was the task set Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami when complications surrounding his visa application became too much to… Read More
Published: 29 May 2009
The new cast for the hit stage adaptation of Calendar Girls has been announced. Among the new intake are former EastEnders stars Jill Halfpenny, Anita Dobson and Jack Ryder, alongside… Read More
Fans disappointed not to catch David Tennant playing Hamlet in the West End last Christmas will get another chance to see him in the role when the Royal Shakespeare Company… Read More
As part of the Travelex £10 ticket season, the National Theatre has taken All’s Well That Ends Well, one of Shakespeare’s less commonly performed plays, and placed the context in… Read More
The National Theatre has once again taken its oversized living room furniture out of storage in anticipation of its annual Watch This Space festival, which takes up residence in Theatre… Read More
Published: 28 May 2009
The Theatre Royal Haymarket production of Waiting For Godot, which stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, has extended its London run until 9 August.One of the hottest tickets in London… Read More
A musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray is to play at the Leicester Square theatre this summer, opening on 2 July (previews from 23 June) and… Read More
The Comedy theatre is to host the world premiere of new musical Too Close To The Sun, which runs for a limited eight week season in the West End this… Read More
Ronald Harwood’s plays, written independently of each other, are now staged in repertoire at the Duchess theatre, painting a portrait of the struggle to maintain the independence of culture under… Read More
An ageless woman sits on stage surrounded by half-filled glasses of exotic fruit juices and a cosy flat interior. The story she is here to tell us is one that… Read More
Published: 27 May 2009
Daniela Nardini has joined the previously announced Rachel Weisz, Ruth Wilson, Barnaby Kay, Elliot Cowan and Jack Ashton in the forthcoming Donmar Warehouse production of A Streetcar Named Desire.The full… Read More
Over 1,700 people attended the Society of London Theatre’s (SOLT) first ever West End Family Fun Day at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday, marking a huge success for the free… Read More
Sally Ann Triplett, Norman Bowman and Niamh Perry are to join the cast of Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales theatre on 15 June. Triplett, who takes over from… Read More
Acclaimed actress Clare Higgins tells Caroline Bishop about the joy of the stage and the demise of the screen.“I don’t understand the term ‘problem play’, I never have,” says Clare… Read More
Aspiring opera stars are being given the chance to perform live to a packed Trafalgar Square as part of the Royal Opera’s BP Summer Big Screens.The Royal Opera has launched… Read More
‘Gated communities’ are new to me. The idea of locking yourself away in a self-contained complex separated from the rest of the world, protected from the hideous reality of life… Read More
Published: 26 May 2009
Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams is to follow fellow American Jerry Springer in the cast of Chicago this summer.The US star will make her UK stage debut in the… Read More
Published: 22 May 2009
Trevor Nunn’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music has extended its run at the Garrick theatre until 5 September ahead of an intended Broadway transfer. The production originated… Read More
Philip Larkin may have said it most succinctly in This Be The Verse: “They f**k you up your Mum and Dad / they may not mean to but they do”.… Read More
Published: 21 May 2009
A new web-based event is offering budding young stage stars the chance to learn from professionals. Young Performer Week, held from 8 to 14 June, allows young people interested in… Read More
Matt Charman is fast developing into a playwright of some repute. The winner of the Verity Bargate Award in 2005, his third play, The Observer, balances huge political and philosophical… Read More
Published: 20 May 2009
A host of London’s hottest musicals will be bringing free entertainment to Leicester Square this summer as part of West End LIVE.The two-day event, which runs on 20 and 21… Read More
The former sitcom star talks to Matthew Amer about new show Amongst Friends and trying to change audiences’ perceptions of him. The power of television on perception really can’t be… Read More
Stage and screen star John Barrowman is to return to the West End this autumn, donning the stunning sparkling dresses of Albin in musical comedy La Cage Aux Folles.Barrowman will… Read More
Renowned circus performers Jean Baptiste Thierrée and Victoria Chaplin are to bring their cult show Le Cirque Invisible to the Southbank Centre this summer. Last performed in the UK in… Read More
Stephen Daldry’s 1992 National Theatre production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls is to return to London this autumn for an eight-week season at the Novello theatre from 22 September… Read More
Shout!, the 60s jukebox musical currently playing at the Arts theatre, is to close on 31 May.The self-proclaimed ‘Grooviest Show In Town’, which stars Su Pollard, Tiffany Graves, Shona White… Read More
Swan Lake hits cinema screensThe Royal Ballet production of Swan Lake, which was staged at the Royal Opera House earlier this year, is to be screened in over 70 cinemas… Read More
Playwright Zinnie Harris could surely not have predicted the exquisite timing of her version of Ibsen’s famous play A Doll’s House. In setting the Norwegian playwright’s classic in an Edwardian… Read More
Published: 19 May 2009
The Young Vic has announced two new shows for its summer season; 2007 Edinburgh Festival hit immigration drama The Container and Alecky Blythe’s brothel-set docu-drama The Girlfriend Experience. The Container,… Read More
The boundaries between man and beast are explored in Wallace Shawn’s new surreal comedy Grasses Of A Thousand Colours, presented as the second of three plays in the Wallace Shawn… Read More
The Watermill Theatre’s successful production of Sunset Boulevard, which has been running at the Comedy theatre since December 2008, is to close on 30 May.The show, which had already extended… Read More
Published: 18 May 2009
The stage adaptation of Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall, is to play at the Hampstead theatre this summer following its world premiere at the Bristol Old… Read More
The 2009 Greenwich And Docklands International Festival, which comprises four days of free outdoor performance, is to feature a host of artists presenting work linked by a common theme, water.The… Read More
The National Theatre has announced more shows to join its NT Live scheme which will broadcast selected performances to cinemas in the UK and abroad. The previously announced Phèdre is… Read More
Published: 15 May 2009
Ross Noble and Dylan Moran are to continue the recent trend for Shaftesbury Avenue stand-up comedy when they bring their shows to the Apollo theatre this autumn. Noble’s current show… Read More
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which brought New Orleans to its knees in 2005, is to be thrown under the spotlight in a new piece of site-specific theatre to play… Read More
Laurence Olivier Award-winning cabaret show La Clique, which is forced to vacate its home at the Hippodrome on 27 June, is to return to London this Christmas with a nine-week… Read More
The Little Angel theatre is to celebrate all things puppet-related with its second annual summer party on 4 July for puppet fans of all ages. This one day festival takes… Read More
Director Thea Sharrock will return to the Almeida theatre this autumn to direct the first London revival of Nicholas Wright’s drama Mrs Klein.The new addition to the Almeida theatre’s autumn… Read More
Anna Friel will take on the iconic character Holly Golightly in a new stage adaptation of Breakfast At Tiffany’s at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 9 September (press night 29… Read More
Faced with living in a time of recession, climate change, hoodies and anti-social behaviour, Marcus Markou’s Ordinary Dreams explores just how the everyman should keep managing to get out of… Read More
Following last week’s The Last 5 Years, the Notes From New York season at the Duchess theatre continues with the late American composer Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical. Larson was only… Read More